You're correct in that the human brain often does its own caching, but there's a great difference between caching and rote memorization. Caching involves temporarily remembering recently-used information relevant to the task at hand, like an equation or a recently-accessed disk block. Rote memorization involves committing arbitrary information to memory outside of its use-case.
Due to our mind's wiring, we usually find rote memorization more difficult and less effective than doing our jobs, looking things up as necessary, and letting our mind cache the looked-up information we actually use.
How did this tripe full of tropes so old and tired they've had 3 cancers, a heart attack and a stroke actually qualify to receive moderation as "+3, Informative".
Those sites are conspiracy-monger sites, and this man cannot even write using proper English.
Except that the Virtual Console's selection and pricing comes from Nintendo's monopoly, not the free market. The Virtual Console remains the only way to legally purchase old Nintendo games that will very definitely work (ie: no broken hardware).
Most people really just look at the selection and think: "Why should I pay $5 for another copy of a game whose broken cartridge is sitting in my attic?"
The fact is that a lot of people buying Wiis have always bought Nintendo consoles. I fall into this group, and because I still have my "retro" system (Nintendo 64 in working order) *and* know how to use ZSNES, I really don't see anything in the Virtual Console (USA) that I want but don't already own. If I want to play Zelda 64, I can just put the cartridge in and turn it on (with moon jump enabled, of course).
Well it's not *just* first-party games to compete against on Nintendo systems. Nintendo has always had a second-party developer or two working for them. Back in the day, they had RARE making the Donkey Kong games, Capcom helped them with a couple of Zelda games, Pokemon originally came from a second-party developer (can't find the name on Wikipedia), and Nintendo now has Sega practically in their pocket as a second-party dev house, with Sonic games being developed primarily for Nintendo systems and Nights coming to the Wii in fall.
A fair amount of non-Nintendo work gets published exclusively for Nintendo systems.
No, I think he's madder at rich kids who pay in full for 4 years of Art History or Basket Weaving, thus bidding up the price of 4 years of Mechanical Education for the son of immigrants who really needs it.
But of course, this only really deals with the very top schools. The top schools have gotten more and more expensive *and* more and more selective about admissions. At the same time, prospective students have started applying to more schools and enrolling in the top school they win acceptance to, sometimes without regard for whether they can afford it.
Screw college loans and scholarships. What we actually need to do is build a few more top-class universities (or promote existing schools to top-class via improvements in faculty and additional research funding) here and there to increase the educational supply, making the price go down.
Why do so many Slashdotters assume a deterministic universe? Seems like some people feel uncomfortable around things thy can't solve with their l33t math skillz.
If someone can't see that their hatred for others is dangerous and needs to be kept in check, perhaps they need to relax with TV and a beer. Teens can't do that, because we try to restrict their access to television and definitely restrict their access to beer.
Somewhere along the way, hopefully they'll realize that no matter how painfully conformist it seems, they really aren't all that different than everybody else. Human beings are born unique, and the majority of them spend most of their lives trying to alleviate this dreadful affliction. Don't dare discourage those few who see the gift for what it really is.
Of course, I went to public school but evidently my school was fairly different from anyone else I've compared with. And this should tell you that your experience was, unfortunately, unique. Most high schools are cliquey, stupid, and maintain a rather adversarial relationship with the law and its enforcers. Kids who aren't depressed by the average-case high school *do* have something wrong with them, and your exceptionally good experience doesn't change that.
But your point about initiative is still a good one, with one caveat: thanks to legal age restrictions, most kids can't do much for themselves. I left high school after 2 years to home-school, and I've been happy and successful at it. But thanks to ever-rising drop-out ages and the need for parental consent to home-school, I can't just tell everyone who isn't happy in school to leave.
Thank God we both came out OK, but we can't tell everyone to act like us. They probably can't.
The Torah contains those horrors precisely because the authors painted a rather accurate picture of their ancient world rather than watering it down for "the children".
Ever try to learn morality from a children's book that you can use in the real, complex, adult world? No? My point exactly.
Actually, the USA birth rate is 2.07 children per woman, just 0.03 under the replacement rate. If you took the immigrants away, we'd appear dying just like Europe, Japan and Israel.
I think Darwin has something to say about smart people who are not smart enough to find a partner of the opposite sex. If I had listened to my parents and religion a bit less, I would have no virginity today.
Some geeks can't make it with the opposite sex because they're horribly unattractive in every way, but most simply believe too strongly in Safe Sex or True Love or something to take a random blow-job from some girl in English class.
I'm not saying semi-anonymous hook-up sex is a good thing. I'm saying "our" problem is probably self-inflicted to a significant extent.
Also, Adonai in his wisdom made more types of intelligence than computer science, math and physics.
Slashdot Mirror
You're correct in that the human brain often does its own caching, but there's a great difference between caching and rote memorization. Caching involves temporarily remembering recently-used information relevant to the task at hand, like an equation or a recently-accessed disk block. Rote memorization involves committing arbitrary information to memory outside of its use-case.
Due to our mind's wiring, we usually find rote memorization more difficult and less effective than doing our jobs, looking things up as necessary, and letting our mind cache the looked-up information we actually use.
Mike Gravel will be on the Colbert Report tonight in a little less than one hour.
I'm hoping for a Gravel/Kucinich ticket. Otherwise I'll just split my vote between Green and Libertarian.
There are only 100 Senators, so I feel glad that you don't vote. You don't actually vote, do you?
And apparently you've never heard of Mike Gravel and Dennis Kucinich.
How did this tripe full of tropes so old and tired they've had 3 cancers, a heart attack and a stroke actually qualify to receive moderation as "+3, Informative".
Those sites are conspiracy-monger sites, and this man cannot even write using proper English.
Mods, do your jobs and moderate!
Except that the Virtual Console's selection and pricing comes from Nintendo's monopoly, not the free market. The Virtual Console remains the only way to legally purchase old Nintendo games that will very definitely work (ie: no broken hardware).
Most people really just look at the selection and think: "Why should I pay $5 for another copy of a game whose broken cartridge is sitting in my attic?"
The fact is that a lot of people buying Wiis have always bought Nintendo consoles. I fall into this group, and because I still have my "retro" system (Nintendo 64 in working order) *and* know how to use ZSNES, I really don't see anything in the Virtual Console (USA) that I want but don't already own. If I want to play Zelda 64, I can just put the cartridge in and turn it on (with moon jump enabled, of course).
Well it's not *just* first-party games to compete against on Nintendo systems. Nintendo has always had a second-party developer or two working for them. Back in the day, they had RARE making the Donkey Kong games, Capcom helped them with a couple of Zelda games, Pokemon originally came from a second-party developer (can't find the name on Wikipedia), and Nintendo now has Sega practically in their pocket as a second-party dev house, with Sonic games being developed primarily for Nintendo systems and Nights coming to the Wii in fall.
A fair amount of non-Nintendo work gets published exclusively for Nintendo systems.
s/Mechanical Education/Mechanical Engineering/
It's 3 in the morning here, sorry.
No, I think he's madder at rich kids who pay in full for 4 years of Art History or Basket Weaving, thus bidding up the price of 4 years of Mechanical Education for the son of immigrants who really needs it.
But of course, this only really deals with the very top schools. The top schools have gotten more and more expensive *and* more and more selective about admissions. At the same time, prospective students have started applying to more schools and enrolling in the top school they win acceptance to, sometimes without regard for whether they can afford it.
Screw college loans and scholarships. What we actually need to do is build a few more top-class universities (or promote existing schools to top-class via improvements in faculty and additional research funding) here and there to increase the educational supply, making the price go down.
Dear old RPI! ...And the many bitter memories I shall never have of thee because I turned thee down.
Why do so many Slashdotters assume a deterministic universe? Seems like some people feel uncomfortable around things thy can't solve with their l33t math skillz.
Their chemical composition, perhaps?
Joe Cocker has actually done the song at one point. I can send you the .ogg file.
But it's cool to know that Leonard Cohen sang it first.
No, this is why.
But your point about initiative is still a good one, with one caveat: thanks to legal age restrictions, most kids can't do much for themselves. I left high school after 2 years to home-school, and I've been happy and successful at it. But thanks to ever-rising drop-out ages and the need for parental consent to home-school, I can't just tell everyone who isn't happy in school to leave.
Thank God we both came out OK, but we can't tell everyone to act like us. They probably can't.
The Torah contains those horrors precisely because the authors painted a rather accurate picture of their ancient world rather than watering it down for "the children".
Ever try to learn morality from a children's book that you can use in the real, complex, adult world? No? My point exactly.
It's probably like the SAT Math section: start off with a small number of dead-easy questions before moving through to hard ones.
We can't really compare without *context*.
So where do you live that students can specialize in high school? The UK?
American independent pizzerias are actually quite good, you insensitive clod!
I look forward to the day when we can exploit those bandersnatches to obtain all manner of desirable effects.
It's funny because it's in hideously bad taste.
In Soviet Russia, processes work out their differences peacefully.
Actually, the USA birth rate is 2.07 children per woman, just 0.03 under the replacement rate. If you took the immigrants away, we'd appear dying just like Europe, Japan and Israel.
Some geeks can't make it with the opposite sex because they're horribly unattractive in every way, but most simply believe too strongly in Safe Sex or True Love or something to take a random blow-job from some girl in English class.
I'm not saying semi-anonymous hook-up sex is a good thing. I'm saying "our" problem is probably self-inflicted to a significant extent.
Also, Adonai in his wisdom made more types of intelligence than computer science, math and physics.
No, it seems to be more like "Smart people decide that having children is for idiots. Goto step 1."
We'd have plenty of smart people around if they weren't so worried about ending the Global Overpopulation that Third-World countries perpetrate.